Live Free or Pie Hard

Blog overload! Claire has been too hard on herself below, with the descriptions of our caramel endeavors. And for the record, cubes of caramel WILL grate, but only on the largest holes of the box grater (and at an ambient room temperature below 71F). (Ted, I owe you $1.)

Truly yesterday was tremendous blog fodder. Before the crew came over for our usual dinner, I took the opportunity to hack up one bone-in pork shoulder – pernil, if you will. I won’t go into excruciating detail, but let’s just say there was a lot of blood. Something reminiscent of a certain scene from Carrie. OK, not quite that bad.

This hacked up pork became the base for a delicious meal of tinga and tostada. While it didn’t meet any of the P-bury bake-off requirements (not an easy entrée, nor an entertaining appetizer, and certainly not a family breakfast), it was a food product I was proud of. The slowly simmered pork, home-made chorizo and crispy corn tortillas came together nicely, and were even better when topped with a little queso fresco, cilantro, sour cream, lime and avocado. No pictures are available, and we licked the plates clean, so use your imagination.

I think the spices and labor-intensity of the entrée might have affected our judgment because, let’s be honest, we all made some mistakes on that dessert. The pie crust didn’t come out quite as planned. I also thought we probably should have doubled the amount of bananas used. It all worked out in the end though. I now have a half-consumed pie resting peacefully in my freezer, which I plan to wolf down as soon as I can leave my office. Also, I took the liberty of pouring Ted’s miraculous melted caramel cube/water syrup over the remaining pie as I was cleaning up last night. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

And while this blog is dedicated to the endeavor of pulling in some cold hard cash, I think we all know that the food has always been second fiddle to the real reason we cook. Having an opportunity to gather with friends, talk about the Olympics and pontificate about why competitors, namely gymnasts, aren’t naked. Claire really summed up the evening beautifully. “STDs! You can’t have everyone’s junk hitting the pommel horse.” Sigh…that’s what it’s all about.